O-M-Glee: Lea Michele and Cory Monteith

A perfect harmony is always pretty. But some of the best duets derive their power—and their charm—from the way that they blend two very different voices. Consider this summer's inescapable "California Gurls": The Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg collaboration layered a clear, lilting soprano over a somewhat rougher male vocal to memorable (and catchy) effect.

A similar dynamic is at work in the relationship between Lea Michele and Cory
Monteith, the artfully mismatched pair at the center of FOX's musical smash hit Glee. The two actors have even less in common than their in-love alter egos, Rachel and Finn: Lea's an ambitious ex–New Yorker who made her Broadway debut at the age of eight—the part of a driven would-be star was written, series cocreator Ryan Murphy has said, with her in mind. And Cory's a Canadian-born former odd-jobber who was so unsure of his singing that he elected to "drum on Tupperware and wineglasses" with a pair of unsharpened pencils during his first audition for the show.

Yet at their recent Teen Vogue interview, conducted over lunch at a favorite Los Angeles café, the two stars demonstrated a winningly effervescent—and utterly un-fake-able—rapport.

Teen Vogue: So, you guys have gone from relatively unknown to pretty ubiquitous in the past eighteen months, thanks to the success of Glee. Do you feel like you're finally getting everything you worked so hard for?

Cory Monteith: No. I don't feel like I was working toward this at all! I didn't even know that you could get paid to be an actor when I first started doing this.

Teen Vogue: How did you start?

Cory Monteith: You want to take this one, Lea? She's heard this
story, like, 100,000 times.

Lea Michele: We've all heard each other's stories.

Cory Monteith: I'll make it quick. I was 20 years old, working as a roofer and a telemarketer and driving a taxi, just barely getting by. A friend of a friend suggested I try acting. I was like, "Why? What am I going to do? Community
theater?" But I took a class, and the teacher thought that I had potential, so I moved to Vancouver and started auditioning. I slept on someone's floor. I brought, like, two shirts and two pairs of pants.

Teen Vogue: Why didn't you pack more pants?

Cory Monteith: I didn't own any! I was dirt-poor. I could barely hold down a job. Eventually, though, I started getting small parts on shows like Smallville, Supernatural . . . and lots of really bad sci-fi movies. I was running around the woods in wolf contacts, covered in fake blood made out of pancake syrup, roaring.

Lea Michele:Hybrid. Check it out.

Teen Vogue: Did you enjoy that?

Cory Monteith: I was, like, so stoked. But when the Glee audition came around, my manager literally had to talk me into it. I was petrified to sing in front of anyone.

Lea Michele: Fast-forward two years, he's on stage at Radio City, singing live in front of 6,000 people and, like, loving it.

Cory Monteith:Loving it.

Lea Michele: He's a rock star.

Teen Vogue: And Lea, was this a goal of yours?

Lea Michele: I didn't expect to be an actor either. But I went to an audition, and I got a job. After my first night on stage, I turned to my parents and said, "I love doing this—don't ever stop me." But I was very content; I figured that my life's path was to be a Broadway performer. I only came out to L.A. because, after Spring Awakening—

Cory Monteith: You were in Spring Awakening? Sorry. That's a joke.

Lea Michele: Whenever we do an autograph signing and someone says, "I loved you in Spring Awakening," he says, "You were in Spring Awakening?" So anyway—I didn't think there'd ever be a part that was fitting for someone who looked like me, who acted like me. I was just stepping away from Broadway for a few months, and then Glee came around. And it's really opened my eyes to this world of film and television and made me realize that maybe there's a place for me.

Teen Vogue: Has it been difficult to bring in new cast members, like Chord Overstreet [who plays Sam]?

Cory Monteith: All of the girls on the show like Sam.

Lea Michele: He's a hottie.

Cory Monteith: And I think, for the most part, we've been welcoming. There's hasn't been any hazing or anything.

Teen Vogue: You guys seem very close—is it strange to play boyfriend and girlfriend on TV?

Lea Michele: We're such good friends that we've passed that level of weirdness. Cory farts in front of me.

Teen Vogue: And your boyfriend doesn't get jealous? About the kissing, I mean.